A fine and rare biscuit porcelain 'dragon' dish Mark and Period of Hongzhi

incised in fine lines on the interior with a central medallion enclosing a writhing five-clawed dragon suspended amidst clouds, the exterior similarly decorated with two dragons against a ground of tumultuous waves crashing against jagged rocks, the dragons reserved against an unctuous milky-white glazed ground, their unglazed bodies and the clouds burnt russet in the firing

A similar dish was sold in these rooms, 25th April 2004, lot 275. See also a slightly smaller dish of related dragon design illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum. Monochrome Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Hong Kong, 1968, pl.2; another included in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, pl. 7:3; and a third in the Metropolitan Museum of Art published in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 155. Compare also a smaller dish of this form and design, from the Edward T. Chow collection, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 444, and again, 17th May 1988, lot 10.